A high-profile Syrian opposition figure was met by a group of angry pro-regime demonstrators at a speaking engagement at Carleton University Thursday night, forcing the event to end early.

Syrian National Council President George Sabra was met by a group of 20 to 25 protestors expressing support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to an event organizer who asked to remain anonymous.

The organizer said the protestors attempted to interrupt the event just as it was set to begin. They said the demonstrators were peering through the windows at the back of the lecture hall where Sabra spoke, holding pro-Assad flags and yelling profanities.

The organizers called Carleton’s campus security immediately, who eventually told them they would have to end the event early for “security reasons.” The organizer said the event, which was scheduled to run from 7 to 9 p.m., ended at 8:30 p.m. No protestors entered the lecture hall during Sabra’s address, according to the organizer.

However, the demonstrators waited in the lobby outside the hall until the end of the lecture when Sabra’s driver, surrounded by campus security, was escorted to his vehicle. The event organizer said the protestors thought the driver was Sabra and followed him to the parking lot, spitting and swearing at him along the way.

George Sabra, President of the Syrian National Council, conducts an interview with a television network following his meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird in Montreal, on Wednesday.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Sabra was later escorted to his vehicle by a group of approximately 10 people. However, when he arrived, the organizer said a protestor was waiting nearby and spat on the window after Sabra got into his vehicle.

“The whole point is it was violent. It was not expected. We tried to keep calm as much as we can but again they were basically swearing, they were basically telling us how we were traitors,” said the organizer. “They were spitting and one of them was trying to throw a shoe. It wasn’t a peaceful protest, that’s for sure.”

Despite the unexpected turn of events, the event organizer said, thankfully, no one was hurt.

Sabra is in Canada discussing the deepening crisis in Syria with the Canadian public and government officials, including Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Following a number of public appearances in Montreal, Sabra traveled to Ottawa Thursday night to host a town hall lecture about the ongoing crisis in Syria, which has left more than 100,00 dead and displaced two million since April 2011. The event organizer said 40 to 50 people attended the town hall at Carleton to hear Sabra’s address, which was entirely in Arabic.

Prior to the event at Carleton Thursday evening, Sabra told iPolitics the British Parliament’s vote Thursday against a military response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria is bad news for the Syrian people. He also said Canada has more of a humanitarian role to play in Syria than a military one. Read the full story here.

Sabra will travel to Mississauga Saturday night, where he will deliver a similar address Novotel hotel. He will then return to Syria next week, via Turkey.